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Definition of churn in US English:

churn

noun

1A machine or container in which butter is made by agitating milk or cream.

‘There's also a table with three skinny legs and a lidded jar with a thick, straight, vertical handle that rises up like the rod of a butter churn.’

‘Occasionally, when there's an abundance of milk, Janet will make butter and cheese by traditional methods using an old, hand-turned butter churn, and her daughter produces free-range bacon.’

‘The farmer agreed to do this and started churning again the next morning, in no time at all there was enough butter in the churn to supply half the countryside.’

‘Mr Stone said the 38 cm metal disc was originally attached to the largest type of butter churn made by the company, which was built specifically for the large-scale production of butter.’

‘Her dress was very stately; it was mostly off-white silk, like the color of buttery cream in a churn.’

‘In the center of the room stands an enormous stainless steel churn, a giant horizontal spatula on wheels to remove the butter from the churn, and a boat, or trough, into which the spatula unloads its haul.’

‘Some of them saw us and paused at their chores, resting behind their ploughs or looking up from butter churns and gardens.’

‘Even better, through development work on the continuous butter churn, Tong and his team of food scientists propose the production of a butter that has a reduced fat content.’

‘The Country Living-themed event at St Mary's Church, Sand Hutton, will include a pig farm, country kitchen window, milk churns and butter churns.’

‘It was also usual, although not very popular, for the one who was last downstairs to have to turn the churn handle until the cream turned into butter.’

‘Since about 1870, they had been in the business of manufacturing churns, butter molds, scales, thermometers, and other tools used in dairying.’

‘Jackie thought that was a mug's game, but was happy to separate the cream from the milk (by hand), and make butter in a wooden churn.’

‘Mothers made butter from milk, they mixed the milk in a butter churn.’

‘When I was small I had the job of watching the little circular window on the lid of the churn and had to shout when the glass became clear, an indication that the butter had separated.’

‘She is a perfect mountain woman, shrewd and suspicious, quick to laugh or scowl, handy with a butter churn or a folk remedy.’

‘It was said that to take a coal from the fire in the house in which a churn was being made was very unlucky for the maker of the butter.’

‘They found him out back, banging on a butter churn, watched by unimpressed cows.’

‘An old woman covered her bare shoulders with a woollen shawl as Estelle struggled with the butter churn by the doorway.’

‘He has created a motorised butter churn which is an ordinary churn with an engine from a lawn mower attached underneath.’

‘We are one of only two remaining manufacturers in North America still using a butter churn in the making of buttermilk.’

‘Milk is churned about when it is being transported long distances and its quality will suffer.’

‘At that point the hurricane began crossing over seas that had been churned up by Tropical Storm Cindy late last week.’

2.2with objectBreak up the surface of (an area of ground)

‘the earth had been churned up where vehicles had passed through’

‘The shelling churned the landscape into a sea of mud and craters.’

‘Mr Langton said: ‘The weather is so bad at the moment that if we try to move the car, it will churn the field up and make a real mess of the pitch.’’

‘About 30 boulders have been mounted on the grass verge in Wilcot Avenue to stop motorists churning up the ground.’

‘Between January and March games are always called off because mud has been churned up.’

‘Turbulent tides have churned up the sea bed, disturbing rocks and natural debris such as drift wood.’

‘Eventually, we did go off-road as the tarmac gave out and the dirt track became increasingly churned up.’

‘The whole of the Market Place has been revamped at vast expense and if it were churned up now it would be quite appalling.’

‘By then the Allied armies had advanced about ten miles and the Somme battlefield had been churned, like that of Verdun, into a featureless lunar landscape.’

‘The field has been ruined, the grass has been churned up into mud, there are piles of rubbish everywhere and it's not even been bagged.’

‘Residents have complained that cars and vans have been used in races around the playing fields, churning up the grass.’

‘Furious park users claim that a popular beauty spot has been churned up by speeding quad bikes.’

‘The town council chairman said the grass outside the school was being churned up by tyres.’

‘Just a few weeks after the green was opened, youths on motorbikes churned up the grass, and, in one week alone, the council was forced to fork out more than £1,000 to repair damage.’

‘She aimed her rifle at the ground, fired off a spray that churned the earth.’

‘But the land was churned up by riders and followers of the Bedale Hunt in pursuit of a fox last Saturday.’

‘Elsewhere there are places where thoughtless mountain bike and motorbike riders have churned up paths.’

‘He added grass verges in the area were churned up and were disgusting and wanted to know what Colchester Council was spending taxpayers' money on.’

‘Huge earth moving machines continue to churn the ground beneath the pig farm, 18 miles east of Vancouver, in the search of more evidence.’

‘All that is gone now due to a few selfish bikers who rip round all over the field, taking a delight in churning every path up and making walking a very dangerous occupation.’

‘Road safety markings in the shape of dinosaur footprints that were painted on a dangerous crossing to help children get to and from school have been churned up by workmen weeks after they were installed.’

3with object(of a broker) encourage frequent turnover of (investments) in order to generate commission.

‘He then churned the Estate account by selling perfectly reasonable shares to pay for this ill-conceived investment.’

‘And because they churn their portfolios almost by the minute, their trading volumes move markets.’

‘The broker appears to have churned the account and Donald let him do so.’

‘There seems to be no end of brokers appearing in the press and on TV these days telling us we need to churn our portfolios more often.’

‘Managers may churn their accounts to generate more soft dollars in order to buy services such as stock research.’

‘It was the kind of fairy tale brokers tell their clients while churning their accounts.’

‘This is unlike other funds which churn their portfolio in a never-ending search for hot stocks.’

‘One dealer said the volume was mostly churned by traders employed by brokerage houses, with most retail investors still on the sidelines.’

‘M&B is churning its estate as it attempts to concentrate on larger sites that make more money from selling food than from beer sales.’

Phrasal Verbs

churn something out

Produce something routinely or mechanically, especially in large quantities.

‘artists continued to churn out insipid works’

‘I went into work early and churned out the press releases due for that week, and then began to proofread and edit some short stories and articles.’

‘Many operators see video-on-demand and subscription VOD as a potential cash machine that will churn out profits for many years.’

‘Mr. Zanussi says that the Hollywood machine churns out films that exploit the debasing tendencies of man like sex and violence.’

‘Back in Tulsa, the John Pickle Company's factory still churns out pressure vessels, many of which sit rusting near the factory gates.’

‘Even as new applications are churned out, old ones need maintaining and even newer ones developing.’

‘‘The EU is churning this legislation out like mad,’ he said.’

‘London has always drawn in the poor and hopeful, and churned out the richer and more successful, who move out because they are worried about raising children in the city.’

‘Katherine Ricketts is an incredible dancer and director, and it should make us proud that SFU Contemporary Arts churns out such damn good performers.’